President tells KPPU to monitor BCA sale
President tells KPPU to monitor BCA sale
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
President Megawati Soekarnoputri told the Business Competition
Supervisory Commission (KPPU) on Wednesday to keep a close eye on
the sale process of the government's 51 percent stake in the
publicly listed Bank Central Asia (BCA).
KPPU chairman Mohammad Iqbal quoted Megawati as also saying
that the commission should report to her its findings.
Speaking to the press following a meeting with Megawati, he
said that monitoring the BCA tender process would be KPPU's top
priority at the moment.
The government-sanctioned commission was established in 1999
to help ensure fair business practices. Under Law No. 5/1999, the
commission is authorized to cancel any transactions, including
the BCA tender, if it smacks of collusion.
The sale of the country's largest private bank has drawn
national wide attention, partly due to the Indonesian Bank
Restructuring Agency (IBRA)'s failure to guarantee that bank
founder Salim group will not be permitted to reenter the bank.
KPPU held a hearing session on Wednesday with IBRA on the BCA
tender process. The agency could not respond properly when asked
how IBRA would be able to detect the presence of Salim's money in
the tender process.
"If you cannot trace where the bidder's funds come from, how
can you guarantee that Salim is not behind it," asked KPPU member
Syamsul Maarif.
The hearing was staged in a bid to address public concern over
a possible conspiracy and to gather information surrounding the
tender process.
"However, we cannot conclude anything just yet, pending
further investigation. We'll definitely keep monitoring the (BCA)
sale," Syamsul said.
At the current stage, the bidding process has reached the due
diligence investigation, with all bidders expected to submit
their final bids before the Jan. 28 deadline. There has been
speculation that certain bidders are linked to Salim.
The government nationalized BCA in the wake of the 1997
financial crisis to prevent the bank from collapsing. Salim had
used most of the bank's money to finance affiliated businesses,
thus violating central bank' regulations.
The government injected trillions of rupiah worth of liquidity
support loans to local banks suffering from a bank run at the
peak of the financial crisis, to prevent the banking sector from
collapsing.
Of the banks, BCA was the largest recipient with the
government reportedly spending no less than Rp 80 trillion (some
US$7.7 bullion) to pull the bank out of bankruptcy.